Australian cyber spies working from a Canberra basement help defeat ISIS

Alex Chapman and Alex Hart

Thursday, 28 March 2019 1:47 am

Australian Cyber Operatives cripple ISIS

New information has surfaced surrounding Australia’s involvement in taking down the ISIS Caliphate. Australian Cyber Operatives from the Australian Signals Directorate hacked into and crippled ISIS communications.

Australian cyber operatives have revealed how their work in 2016 from a basement in Canberra helped dismantle the Islamic State.

Their tactics and techniques had remained highly classified in the wake of an allied Coalition's battle to re-take Mosul from insurgents.

But that suppression was lifted on Wednesday, with experts from the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) revealing how they circumvented encrypted messages from more than 11,000km away.

Mike Burgess, then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and National Cyber Co-ordinator Alastair MacGibbon at the opening of the Australian Cyber Security Centre in 2018.Image: Mick Tsikas/AAP